Arsenal are in a blip, admits Alessia Russo after Women’s Champions League loss

Arsenal goalscorer Alessia Russo admits the European champions are experiencing a “blip” after their Women’s Champions League defence opened with a 2-1 defeat to Lyon.

The England international gave the Gunners a seventh-minute lead but defensive errors allowed Melchie Dumornay to score twice before half-time.

Arsenal are now winless in four matches in all competitions, their joint-longest run without victory in the Women’s Super League era.

“Disappointed to not get the three points. I think at the moment we’re in a bit of a blip but we’re aware of that,” Russo told Disney+.

“I think there’s lots to it. First and foremost, we need to look at ourselves and how we can push our standards.

“We’re sometimes letting teams get attacks on us by our own mistakes. We need to take accountability, we need to focus on what we can do to control that from everyone, it’s all across the pitch.

“I think at times tonight we saw what we’re capable of but it’s just about doing that and making sure we get results as well.

“There’s moments that were really positive so we’ll lean on that.”
Last season Arsenal opened with a defeat, to Bayern Munich, but went on to win the title.

However, Russo knows it will be more difficult as defending champions.

She added: “That’s something we need to use as fuel. We know how hard we worked for that trophy and how it felt to win it.

“When you win a trophy with a team it lights a fire to want to win more because that feeling is like nothing else. Although tonight didn’t go to plan we’ll keep pushing.

“We have to be realistic. We know it’s a long season ahead full of highs and lows. We definitely felt that last season in the Champions League.

“You can never get too high or too low. We’ve got to keep pushing ourselves because we don’t like losing, we don’t like being in moments like this.”

Arsenal return to WSL action on Sunday at home to Brighton before resuming their European campaign four days later away to Benfica in Lisbon.

Head coach Renee Slegers told the club’s website: “Everyone’s working really hard to find that final action, that final detail and find the margins, because it is about margins but it will always be about margins at the highest level.

“That’s what we’re looking at and it’s a mixture, a cocktail of things, but we believe that if we get one or two things right, that the rest will rise with it as well.”